PROCEEDINGS IN THE CITY.
During the month of May the Duke of Gloucester’s wife was delivered of a daughter, and on this occasion, Wilkes moved at a court of common-council, that an humble address of congratulation should be presented to his majesty on the safe delivery, and the birth of a princess. This motion was supported by Sir Watkin Lewes, but other aldermen opposed it, not only on the ground that the king had never acknowledged the lady for his sister, but because it was unusual for the city to address the king, except for the issue of his immediate heir. Earlier in the year, indeed, the queen had been delivered of another son, Augustus Frederic, the late duke of Sussex, and no mention had then been made of an address, and therefore to have presented one on this occasion, would have been invidious, if not indelicate. This motion, therefore, proved abortive. Wilkes, however, with his friend Oliver, succeeded in obtaining from the court of alderman a resolution “that a frequent appeal to the people by short parliaments was their undoubted right, as well as the only means of obtaining a real representation;” and the livery not only passed a similar resolution, but proposed it as a test for the city candidates at a future election. Another strong petition and remonstrance on the old grievances, the Middlesex election, the imprisonment of the lord mayor, etc., and praying for a dissolution of parliament, and a change of ministers, was got up in the city and presented to the king, by the lord mayor, Sergeant Glynn, Alderman Bull, and others of the city officers, on the 26th of March. Before the citizens were introduced to his majesty, they were given to understand that they would not be allowed the honour of kissing his hand, and when it was presented, the king sternly told them, that their petition was so void of foundation, and conceived in such disrespectful terms, that he felt convinced the petitioners did not seriously imagine that its prayer could be complied with.